Colours of Autumn

Some people think of autumn as being about leaves turning from green to brown, but for me, this colour is what autumn is all about.

The sunsets at the end of the valley, at this time of year they have a very special beauty.

I took this a couple of nights ago as I went out to shut the chicken run. This is looking down our valley, you can just see the light reflecting off the caravan and the polytunnel.

I've been busy in both over the last few days. The caravan is where I do all my dyeing, I've been taking advantage of the good weather to dye up some fibre for my upcoming shows. It then all goes off to the polytunnel to dry off. I've spent this afternoon labelling, so I'll be back to turning the carder tomorrow.

Mad Chickens

The chickens have been absent from the blog for far too long.

They still spend most of their time marauding round the garden seeing what yummy things they can find to eat. I see an awful lot of their fluffy bottoms poking skywards!

The observant among you will notice that there are only 3 in the picture above, fear not, the others are still alive and well, just a little pre-occupied.

They have decided that they are brooding a clutch of eggs, except they're not, because all the eggs get taken out of the nest box.... This is why people who want lots of eggs don't have pretty, fluffy, posh chickens. 

One of them has become so broody that even when you evict her from the nest box she still refuses to accept that she's not sat on a clutch of eggs. She just sits there on the lawn in a trance, eventually she wakes up a little, but it takes her a while!

We've tried most of the methods that are supposed to get them to stop being broody and they're having none of it. I kick them off the nest box now and again to get some food, and once the other hens have laid their eggs they get shut out from the nest box, and go off as a little gang to see what adventures they can have.